By Kevin Ma
City council slammed the brakes on its proposed Healing Garden this week after hearing that it had roughly tripled in cost.
St. Albert council voted 4-3 against a motion from Coun. Tim Osborne to add up to $184,000 to the budget for the city's proposed Healing Garden so it could be built this year.
They also voted 4-3 in favour of a motion from Coun. Sheena Hughes to work with the Healing Garden advisory committee to explore and price-out alternative sites for the garden by the end of the year.
Councillors Osborne, Wes Brodhead, and Mayor Nolan Crouse were in the minority on both votes.
Council moved last December to spend $119,100 to build a healing garden as part of Founder's Walk. The garden was meant to raise awareness of the city's history with Indian residential schools and promote indigenous culture and traditions, and was supposed to open later this year along the Sturgeon River across from St. Albert Place.
On Monday, Kelly Jerrott, cultural services director with the City of St. Albert, told council that the project's cost had jumped to about $320,800. Since they only had $136,800 in the budget, they needed another $184,000 to build it this year.
"A big amount of the cost is due to this particular site," Jerrott said. A geotechnical study found that the garden's concrete path would need underground pilings due to the area's high water table.
The city had received about $15,000 from the Anglican Healing and Reconciliation Fund to support the garden, Jerrott said. She was not confident that they could get any more significant grants in time to build the project this year as scheduled.
Delaying the project a year would likely escalate costs, as it would no longer piggyback on the construction crews that are in place this year working on the rest of Founder's Walk, Jerrott said. Other sites would require new geotechnical studies.
Cost criticism
Hughes noted that the garden had more or less tripled in price since it was first proposed, and that most of that jump was due to its location.
"This is not a minor amount," she said.
Hughes and Coun. Cathy Heron called for the garden to either be delayed to muster more fundraising or moved to a new spot.
"I'm sure if (the advisory committee) were not provided the funding today, they might be open to a different location," Heron said.
"We want to get this built ... but at what cost?"
Hughes later said that she would support the higher price if the advisory committee determined that this was the only good spot to build the garden. If council stuck with the current location without adding money, the garden's scope would have to shrink significantly to fit its new budget.
"We want to be able to justify this expenditure," she said.
"I do not want to see this project scaled back."
This project was more than just a garden, said Osborne, who has worked closely with the project's advisory committee – it's meant to be a place of therapy and education, and represents a commitment to walk in right relations with our aboriginal community. It's also a chance to bring people together and to oppose the us-versus-them mentality we see in the wake of the Rolando and Dallas shootings and the U.S. presidential campaign.
This spot was carefully chosen for a variety of reasons, Osborne said (which, as Crouse noted, included its proximity to the Sturgeon, the Youville Home, and a former residential school). Telling the advisory committee to pick a different spot because the city doesn't like the price runs contrary to the spirit of truth and reconciliation this project is all about.
"In working with the aboriginal community, I think we made a commitment and personally I intend to honour it."
Gwen Crouse, chair of the garden's advisory committee, said in an interview that the group would meet this Thursday to discuss the future of the project.
"That site was important for the residential school survivors," she noted, and was recently blessed by the committee's elder, Tony Arcand. She personally favoured delaying the project to do more fundraising instead of moving it.
"If we don't get this spot, I don't know what the alternative would be."
